Zimbabwe Ruling-Party Leaders Gather to Decide Mugabe's Fate By Godfrey Marawanyika , Brian Latham , and Desmond Kumbuka
November 19, 2017 4:11 AM CST Updated on November 19, 2017 5:32 AM CST President could be impeached if he still refuses to step down Mnangagwa seen as frontrunner to become nation’s next leader
Demonstrators hold a placard reading "Mugabe Must Rest Now!" as they call for the resignation of president Robert Mugabe in Harare on Nov. 18. Source: Bloomberg
Zimbabwe’s ruling-party elite are set to seal an end to President Robert Mugabe’s 37-year rule Sunday, a day after tens of thousands of people cheered his imminent downfall on the streets of Harare.
Senior figures of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front gathered in the capital for a crux meeting, after the party’s 10 provincial committees resolved to oust the 93-year-old Friday and its youth league followed suit. The ratification of the decision by Zanu-PF’s 300-strong central committee -- of whom more than 200 attended Sunday -- is now likely to be a mere formality.
"There is no doubt that we meet here with a heavy heart,” Obert Mpofu, the party’s finance secretary, said in introductory remarks before the committee went into a closed session. “We’ve worked together solidly with the outgoing president. This historic meeting will mark a new era, not for our party only but for the country."
Mugabe triggered his own demise by firing Emmerson Mnangagwa as his vice president earlier this month, a move that prompted the military to intervene and place him under house arrest. Seeing the likelihood of his removal, joyous crowds turned out in Harare and Bulawayo -- Zimbabwe’s second-largest city -- on Saturday to celebrate.
On Mugabe’s watch, Zimbabwe has become steadily more impoverished. The economy has halved in size since 2000, there are chronic shortages of cash and food and the country’s main labor-union organization estimates that 95 percent of the workforce are unemployed.
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Poster Comment:
Mugabe has outlived his usefulness with 95% of workforce unemployed and him in the lap of luxury.